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TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook – April 11th

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Sports Notes, Thoughts, and Observations on Masters Weekend

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – This will be a column of free-flowing thoughts and observations from the past week. In honor of the Masters, I bring you a Sunday Sports Notebook “Unlike Any Other.”

“One Shining Moment” was lauded last week just before the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament came to a wonderful Final Four close with one amazing semi-final game (Gonzaga over UCLA) and an incredible display of overall offensive and defensive talent by the 2021 NCAA Champion Baylor Bears with their title win over the previously undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Little did we know that “One Shining Moment is actually a not-so-distant cousin to the famous Masters mantra “Tradition Unlike Any Other”  – a phrase made famous by CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz. The catch-phrase, can be attributed (once said Nantz) to the same man who was behind “One Shining Moment.” That is Doug Towey, the CBS Sports Creative Director who so sadly passed away in 2009 at the age of 61. … In the sports industry, it’s important to “Make a Mark,“and Towey did that behind the scenes at Blackrock with two iconic spring sports traditions that will – hopefully – last forever.

Speaking of “Making a Mark,” Rick Welts, the President of the Golden State Warriors, this week announced that this season would be his last with the franchise. In full disclosure, I used to report to Welts when he was the head of communications and marketing at the NBA – a bit before his promotion to the President of NBA Properties.

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In one of Welts’ senior management presentations at an internal business summit held at the Doral Conference Center in Rye Brook, NY, he noted the most important things to consider if you were to be a success at the NBA. Four of them always resonated with me and rose to the top of Welts’ list:

  1. Know the NBA’s History
  2. You’re Often Judged by the Way You Contribute to the Goals of Others
  3. Conflict is Good; Un-resolved Conflict is Not Good.
  4. Make a Mark

That, indeed, is what Welts did and will continue to do so, in some fashion, I am sure.

Winning seems to follow Rick Welts around, as evidenced by a laundry list of amazing career accomplishments. Here are a few off the top of my head:

  1. In his first sports job, as a ballboy for the now defunct Seattle SuperSonics, the Sonics won the NBA Championship (1979). More importantly, those years struck the chords for a lifetime friendship between Welts and Bill Russell, the NBA’s “Babe Ruth.”
  2. As the head of NBA Properties, the business and marketing arm of the league, Welts spearheaded the launch and marketing of the WNBA, together with USA Basketball and his staff, he planned and executed all media, marketing and PR efforts behind the 1992 USA Basketball Dream Team – from inception to the staging of the Basketball Tournament of the Americas in Portland (the USA had to qualify for Barcelona ‘92) and right up until the USOC took over marketing rights at the ‘92 Summer Games. Welts built NBA Properties and further grew its influence in Consumer Products (think NBA Hoop Cards, E/A Sports video games, apparel, you name it) into a $2 Billion operation that had a mantra of, “we’re not just in the business to sell, but more importantly to renew and improve existing sponsorships, licensees and advertisers.” … Aside from those major marks, Welts was behind the expansion of the NBA All-Star Game into a full NBA All-Star Weekend, complete with All-Star Saturday’s Slam-Dunk and popular Three-Point Shootout. … He played a lead roll in most of the NBA’s International business and marketing efforts, including the establishment of regional offices around the world. … There’s plenty more but column inches, even online, are somewhat limited.
  3. After his stint at the NBA league office, Welts took a side-step to work with Chase Carey and FOX Sports’ interests in professional sports, including STAPLES Center, the LA Dodgers and other investments but the lure of the NBA came calling and he joined the Phoenix Suns as President, and later team CEO, running the franchise’s business operations. … In 2002, when Welts joined, the Suns went 36-46 but by 2004-05, they soared to a 62-20 record under Coach Mike D’Antoni. (The Suns fell short in the Western Conference finals.)
  4. After his nine-year stint with the Suns, Welts joined the Golden State Warriors as team President in October, 2011. Of course, most credit is due to all-star level talent and strong coaching by Steve Kerr, but welts helped place an organizational foundation under the Warriors that resulted in five appearances in the NBA Finals and three NBA Championships (2015, ‘17 and ‘18).
  5. In addition to his successes around the court, Welts also made a huge mark when, in May, 2011, he announced to the sports industry and the world that he was gay, and in doing so, was the first executive in m major sports to take that step so publicly in a front page New York Times story, nonetheless. … Welts noted he received thousands of notes, emails and not one was negative in any manner. … His tireless philanthropic work and true inspiration to all in the SF-Bay area just might outshine those 60+ win seasons and three NBA championship rings.
  6. Most recently, Welts next took on one of the most difficult tasks in the sports industry as the Warriors’ lead exec for the club’s move from Oakland to San Francisco and the building of the brand new Chase Center and its surrounding, privately financed “Thrive City” multi-purpose entertainment facilities.

What’s Next or Who’s Got Next? Welts seems to be keeping it close to the vest while looking forward to a near-future, post global pandemic return to some normalcy and maybe travel to some of the spots he didn’t really get to see while on the job, whether they be Paris or Barcelona or other points in the worlds.

His interview with Mark Spears of The Undefeated touched on many of these very topics. Click HERE to read that column.

While Welts takes a well-deserved break from the pressure and running an organization in the middle to third quarter of the COVID-19 pandemic, this columnists wonders aloud what might happen if the Seattle SuperSonics franchise were to be resurrected sometime soon in the Emerald City and an ownership stake and President/CEO position came calling for a man to jump-start the expansion franchise?

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While We’re Young (Ideas) – April 4

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MLB’s Opening Day Brings Excitement, Wonder and Hope

By TERRY LYONS

The late, great Shelby Strother once wrote in a Christmas-New Years sports column, “The Annual Second Chance is near – it’s called New Year’s Eve. It is the window of opportunity where the hopes and fears of all the year (not to mention the mistakes) can be erased.”

You might argue, there is a much better day than New Year’s Eve to do a self examination of the human mind and the life it leads. There is a day when Spring Training is in the rearview mirror and suddenly, everything is for REAL. It all counts. Together with blooming annuals, chirping birds, the NCAA Final Four, and a crowd at Mahoney’s Garden Center, we bring you Opening Day of Major League Baseball.

For most of Baseball, Opening Day was April 1st, April Fools Day which is an indicator for some to be mentioned later in this column of notes. For New Englanders, Opening Day was RAINED OUT at Fenway Park but you can count on Baseball to be there and, indeed, it was on Good Friday.

But as Jimmy Fallon’s character, Ben, said in “Fever Pitch,” you can count on Baseball. “Every April, they’re here. At 1:05 or at 7:05, there is a game. And if it gets rained out, guess what? They make it up to you. Does anyone else in your life do that?”

They made it up on Friday, complete with all the Opening Day splendors of ceremony, bunting, social distancing, 39-degree weather and fly-overs. The Baltimore Orioles were the visiting team and their starting pitcher, John Means of Olathe, Kansas, gave up a lead-off single to Red Sox 2B Kiké Hernandez much to the delight of the 4,452 fans lucky enough to score a ticket for such a special game.

Then, reality set in and – for Red Sox fans – often, “Reality Sucks!”

The kid from Johnson County, Kansas threw darts and a sinking change-up that must’ve fallen-off a cliff in Oz. Means tossed 7.0 innings of one-hit baseball, including his retirement of 18 consecutive Boston batters. When John throws a baseball, he Means business and the Red Sox were shut-out on their Opening Day for the first time since 1976.

Yet, somehow, even Red Sox fans went home happy.

Baseball – with some fans in the stands – was back and people came to the game. Better yet? In Texas on Monday, they’re expecting 40,300 at Globe Life Stadium in Arlington to watch the Texas Rangers play host against a homeless team originally from Toronto. Must be a “give-away day,” right? Just ask the Washington Nationals.

Rangers fans are obviously shouting, “Pandemic Fever be Damned,” and how can you blame them? We’ve all endured a year of a global pandemic, and so many of our global neighbors, some 2,836,220, have passed away while 130,101,770 of our brothers and sisters threw their own sinking change-ups and one-hit the disease, thank God.

Sunshine, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Baseball bring us the excitement, wonder of what the future may bring in the standings of ball and the ladder of life, and hope. Dear, precious hope.

As James Earl Jones, playing Terence Mann in Field of Dreams said so eloquently to Kevin Costner, portraying Ray Kinsella as they discussed the allure of the sport we call our National Pastime:

“People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.”

Yes. People came out to the old ballgame and things were good once again for the day.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Baseball’s Opening Day might be one of the more underrated of GREAT events on our normal, annual sports calendar.

Another is upon us, as well. That being March Madness and the Final Four. The Saturday semifinals of the tournament is on that lofty list of the greatest days in sports. The underrated gem, is the half hour before tip-off of the first game on Saturday. At that point in time, the fans of the four teams in the gym ALL think they have a shot at the National Championship. The excitement and buzz in that half-hour might be the very best 30 minutes in sports.

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TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook

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While We’re Young (Ideas) of March 28

By TERRY LYONS 

BOSTON – The price tags of each NBA expansion franchise over the last 40-plus years are etched in the mind of this NBA-lifer gone fishing’ in New England back in 2008. Yes, this column construction worker began as an intern at the NBA league office in 1980 and a lot was going on. Namely:

  1. It was the same year Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird began their (paid) NBA internships as league rookies.
  2. It was the same year the NBA adopted the “gimmicky” Three-Point Field Goal made popular in the ABA.
  3. It was the same season the New Orleans Jazz became the Utah Jazz.
  4. It was the same year that Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers and The Fabulous Forum from Jack Kent Cooke.
  5. It was the same year that the late, great Darryl Dawkins broke two glass backboards.
  6. It was the same year David Stern was promoted to Executive Veep – Business and Legal Affairs, under Commissioner Lawrence F. “Larry” O’Brien.
  7. And, it was the same year the NBA laid the foundation for the Dallas Mavericks to become the NBA’s 23rd franchise, beginning the following season – 1980-81.

The purchase price for the Mavericks was a cool $12 million.

When it came time to expand again, in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons, the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic gained entrance to the NBA at the cost of $32.5 million.

The Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies bought in as expansion teams in 1995-96 at the cost of a then-whopping $125 million.

The Charlotte Bobcats joined the NBA party for a cool $400 million in 2009-10.

It seemed ridiculous until the Los Angeles Clippers were sold by disgraced team owner Donald Sterling to an anxious to join the club Steve Ballmer for $2 billion in the summer of 2014. That franchise purchase (not via expansion) changed everything across every professional sports franchise.

Nowadays for the NBA, Commissioner Adam Silver is floating a $2.5 billionexpansion fee as a starting point for discussion. Undoubtedly, someone will pay it, most likely to replace the Seattle SuperSonics in the Emerald City.

Now! Sit down for this!

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Our good friends at Sportico issued franchise valuations for the Major League Baseball this week. Read it and weep if your family name isn’t Steinbrenner, Angelos or Illitch.

Here’s the Top 10:

1 New York Yankees – $6.75 billion

2 Boston Red Sox – $4.80 billion

3 Los Angeles Dodgers – $4.62 billion

4 Chicago Cubs – $4.14 billion

5 San Francisco Giants – $3.49 billion

6 New York Mets – $2.48 billion

7 Los Angeles Angels – $2.46 billion

8 Atlanta Braves – $2.38 billion

9 St. Louis Cardinals – $2.36 billion

10 Philadelphia Phillies – $2.28 billion

(Note: The New York Mets were just purchased by Steve Cohen for a record $2.475 billion.)

Sportico last did the NFL franchise valuations for the 2020 season.

Here was the Top 10 of American Footy:

1. Dallas Cowboys – $6.43 billion

2. New England Patriots – $4.97 billion

3. Los Angeles Rams – $4.10 billion

4. New York Giants – $4.00 billion

5. New York Jets – $3.70 billion

6. San Francisco 49ers – $3.63 billion

7. Washington Football Team – $3.58 billion

8. Chicago Bears – $3.41 billion

9. Philadelphia Eagles – $3.35 billion

10. Houston Texans – $3.34 billion

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TL’s Sunday Notebook – March 21

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BOSTON – The Road to the Final Four isn’t going through Lexington, Kentucky. Nor is it going through Durham, North Carolina. The Road isn’t North Broad Street in Philadelphia where Temple University holds the fifth best college basketball winning percentage of all-time and it’s not taking a turn on the corners of Grand Central Parkway, Union Turnpike and Utopia Boulevard in Jamaica Estates, Queens where St. John’s boasts the ninth winningest basketball program in the history of the sport.

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Those traveling to Indianapolis for the Final Four won’t see the Golden Dome of Notre Dame in South Bend, and the Indiana Hoosiers won’t be playing although they’re using their gym. No Arizona, nor U of Vermont, and no Dayton Flyers – all NCAA regulars.

Gonzaga, a college basketball program established in 1908 and the 32nd winningest team in history holds the overall No. 1 seeding in place of longtime college blue bloods like the Kentucky Wildcats or Duke University Blue Demons.

The times have changed as Antoine Walker wasn’t coming through the door for Kentucky fans, and Christian Laettner wasn’t coming through the doors of Cameron for the Crazies.

The question (and possible answer) for this column is WHY?

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Deserving a Second Chance

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By TERRY LYONS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BOSTON – Who amongst us, doesn’t deserve a second chance?

During the 1980s, NBA All-Star guard Michael Ray Richardson was thrown-out of the league for failing to adhere to the NBA’s anti-drug program but was later given another chance. A decade later, Richardson thanked the late David Stern who as Commissioner of the NBA was credited by the wayward star for saving his life by providing the tough love, then rehabilitation from a serious drug problem.

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In the ‘70s and ‘80s, substance abuse problems and the need for second chances became common place, unfortunately. New York Mets stars Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry each fell into drug dependency and abuse asa they were being built up by Mets fans as long-awaited superstars. They were given second chances by Baseball and New York fans and turned it around.

Former Celtics guard Chris Herren falls into the same category and now counsels youth against the pitfalls of substance abuse, as does basketball’s Vin Baker, who admitted to his fight against alcoholism and worked his way back, first taking a job as an assistant high school basketball coach in Connecticut in 2014. Afterward, he worked as a Starbucks coffee store manager in 2015, and now is back in the pros, working as an assistant coach with one of his former NBA teams, the Milwaukee Bucks.

Not all stories of rebounding for a second chance stem from drugs or alcohol abuse. Olympic speed-skater Dan Jansen was primed for possible medal contention in the 500 and 1,000 meter speed skating races at the 1988 Winter Olympics when – on the day of the 500 meter event – he received a call from his family home in Wisconsin that his 27-year old sister (Jane Marie Beres) was dying from leukemia.

Jansen attempted to speak with his sister by phone, but she was not able to respond. He was later informed of her death and he tried to compete but fell in the 500, distraught. Four days later, in the 1,000 he began with record-breaking speed only to fall again. Jansen left the ‘88 Games in Calgary with no medals and found himself unable to medal at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville.

Jansen made good on his third chance, when he trained and won a World Championship in 1993 then took the gold in the 1,000 at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer in one of the most heartwarming and remarkable stories of USA Olympic Games history.

Again, along the lines of the remarkable is the story of Seabiscuit, one of the greatest thoroughbred race horses of all-time.

“In 1938, the year’s No. 1 newsmaker was not FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. Nor was it Lou Gehrig or Clark Gable. The subject of the most newspaper column inches in 1938 wasn’t even a person. It was an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse named Seabiscuit,” wrote Laura Hillenbrand in Seabiscuit, An American Legend.

In 2003, Seabiscuit’s story was transformed into an Academy Award nominated film (Best Picture), based on the best-selling book by Hillenbrand. Directed by Gary Ross and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, among others, Seabiscuit is in my personal Top 3 and it is my No. 1 favorite “sports” motion picture of all-time.

As we’re delving into “second chances,” Seabiscuit leads the pack when you study the true-life story of an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred whose unexpected success made him “the people’s favorite” and a true sign of hope for the masses in the USA during the Great Depression.

Seabiscuit is also the story of how three men — Charles Howard, Tom Smith, and Red Pollard — overcome personal limitations, demons, and tragedies, as well as economic hard times to bring about Seabiscuit’s thrilling and inspiring victories. The horse was sold to Howard for $8,000 at a Saratoga auction after being trained to lose to would-be greater racehorses. And, lose he did to the point where he was disregarded and discarded.

“You don’t throw a whole life away because he’s banged up a little,” Seabiscuit’s owner Charles Howard said, echoing Tom Smith, then adding later: “Sometimes all somebody needs is a second chance. A lot of people out there know what I mean.”

“You know, everybody thinks we found this broken-down horse and fixed him,” said Pollard, the over-sized jockey played by Tobey Maguire in the film. “But we didn’t. He fixed us; every one of us. And I guess in a way, we kinda fixed each other too.”

That brings us to the 2021 Boston Red Sox baseball season and the second chance being provided to Sox Manager Alex Cora.

There’s “no rooting in the press box,” of course, but even “Tick Tock McLaughlin” would be making his “Lazarus of Bethany” references as it pertains to the vaunted Sox organization placing new trust in Cora after his dismissal and one-year suspension for his center stage effort in the Houston Astros cheating scandal.

In January 2020, the Red Sox and Cora mutually agreed to parting ways after the Astros scandal cost the jobs of Houston GM Jeff Luhnow and team Manager A.J. Hinch. In the COVID-19 limited 2020 season Ron Roenickefilled in nicely for the Sox, but on November 6, 2020 – not long after Mookie Betts and the LA Dodgers were crowned World Champs – Cora was re-hired and signed to a two-year contract by Boston.

While a 108-54 record with the Sox this season is not to be, Red Sox fans and the few veteran players left from the record-setting 2018 season will be supporting Cora in a big way.

The reason?

While Americans enjoy building up heroes then knocking them down, the story isn’t complete and a fan isn’t satisfied until that broken hero gets his/her second chance.

That’s the case this season with Cora and the Sox, although he must now help rebuild the club, rather than rejoice in 100+ wins alongside the likes of Betts, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Chris Sale and Xander Bogaerts.

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